ANDl May 27, 1964 he put on the Real Madrid shirt for the last time Alfredo di Stefano, the man who changed everything in European football. He knew that things were not good with Miguel Munoz and with Santiago Bernabeubut he believed that in the end everything would be channeled to renew.
The way of approaching the game against Inter in the final in Vienna became a case between the coach and the great star. Muñoz, fearful of the increases in facchetti just thought about keeping Isidro from the side; La Saeta was sure that the plan was to put the Catalan defender in midfield to control the duo Corso-Luis Suarez and respond to a team that populated the midfield.
Despite the bad temper of Di Stefano In the hours leading up to the game, and he wasn’t one to hide things he didn’t agree with, Muñoz stuck to his plan. And he went wrong. The Inter won the final in a match in which the Madrid He hardly gave any sensation of being able to be European champion for the sixth time. The chronicles of the days following the defeat were harsh in Spain and outside our country. “It’s a shame to see that players who were so great are now shadows,” read in Italy.
“He failed me as a father”
the return to Madrid from Vienna it was tense. Bernabéu was not present at the dinner after the final. The president hated the defeat, but more than that the discipline of the team was questioned.
A couple of days later, Di Stéfano asked for a time to meet with the president. He had it, but it was Raymond Saporta the one who carried the weight. The Arrow he intuited that his end at Real Madrid was there. Another meeting, this one at the Bernabéu’s house, and an exchange of letters that ended up in the press led to the signing of the divorce. In those letters, Di Stefano he made a request: “Keep the prestige that, much or little, in so many years of struggles can forge me”; that of the president of Madrid contained several references to the value of the group over the individual and the “essential discipline”. Broken everything, at the end of July Di Stefano He sent a telegram to the Bernabéu with a very harsh phrase: “You failed me as a father. It shows that you never had children, because parents always forgive.” Gone were five European Cups. And much more. It had been less than a year since the protagonists of this story had experienced the dramatic hours of the kidnapping of Di Stefano in Caracas.
At the end of Vienna came the real Madrid after a path in which he got rid of four rivals: Glasgow Rangers, Dinamo Bucharest, Milan and Zurich. An Inter awaited him that drew thousands of followers, let’s get excited for the first final of his team and encouraged by a comfortable trip between the capital of Lombardy and that of Austria.
The barcelona, protagonist
The Barça entity had nothing to do in the final, but two of its most important directors traveled to Vienna: Juan Gich and Agustin Pujol. The reason was that on the morning of the final, UEFA had to decide if the League runner-up of the team that won the European Cup would be granted the right to participate in the following edition in the event that the king of Europe was also the first in his country. Inter said no, because they thought that decision would reduce interest in their fight with him. bologna for him shield. Barcelona’s position was not clear, because if it won the Cup it could give priority to participating in the Cup Winners. In the end, the decision was postponed for the Executive to be held in June in Madrid. “Unfortunately, it will no longer be important for Spanish football,” he explained after the final Agustin Pujol.
Clear defeat, but Puskas’ stick…
Because the final of the IX European Cup was resolved with a clear victory for Inter. Few buts were put to the 3-1 that took for the first time the european cup to the only city that has two teams that have won the competition in its two versions: the one born in 1955 and the one that has been disputed since 1992 with the Champions formula.
Everything lies in the gifts we gave them: three times they shot and… three goals
In a Prater in which hours before the final there were already more than 30,000 people to watch a match between Austrian youth teams, the team coached by Helnio Herrera was always ahead on the scoreboard and with the feeling of always being in control. All in all, 50 minutes into the game, at 0-1, a powerful shot from Puskas crashed into the crossbar. He could change the final, but the final reality was a 3-1 and the closure of the greatest era of the white club: that of the Di Stefano’s Madrid.
